PASADENA – The Stanford Cardinal, faced with third-and-7 and knowing a first-down would clinch a victory, elected to do what it had done all afternoon – run the ball.

Toby Gerhart was stopped 2 yards shy of a first down, which allowed UCLA’s offense to get the ball back and stage a last-second, 23-20 comeback victory Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

Stopping the play and keeping the Cardinal offense in check didn’t take any outlandish defensive schemes, according to Bruins defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker.

“It’s pretty easy when a guy just tells you, `Hey, man, I’m just going to run the ball at you every play,”‘ Walker said.

“It’s like, `All right, we’re going to do whatever we have to do stop you from running that at us.’ So we had to bring some man blitzes, bring an extra guy in the box and we were like, `(Alterraun) Verner and Mike (Norris), good luck in coverage.”‘

Coach Jim Harbaugh’s team ran the ball 44 times for 250 yards. But the Cardinal attempted only 13 passes (quarterback Tavita Pritchard was 5 of 12 for 51 yards and an interception), and the only time Stanford passed on back-to-back plays was early on the last drive, when one resulted in a pass-interference call against Verner and the next was incomplete.

“He threw the ball, what, 10 times?” Walker said. “He just came in and basically was like, `Hey, we’re going to put our foot in your (butt).’ Maybe they felt like they didn’t need to throw, or they felt maybe we could cover them. I don’t know what they were thinking.

“They made their mind up they were going to run. It didn’t quite work. Almost, but it didn’t quite work.”

TACKLING TOBY

The bruising 6-foot-1, 232-pound Gerhart, who was recruited hard by UCLA, finished with 138 yards rushing on 27 attempts.

“Man, he’s probably the toughest back to tackle this year,” UCLA linebacker Reggie Carter said. “I know a couple of times, I was getting off blocks and I reached to try and get him … but with him he’s big and strong, you have to put a body on him. You can’t just put your hands on him.”

LOCKETT’S REDEMPTION

After playing poorly last week at Oregon, senior strong safety Bret Lockett played so well Walker scrapped plans to use red-shirt freshman Glenn Love to spell him.

“It was probably the toughest week, this and the Tennessee week, when I did not play (because of suspension),” Lockett said. “All the criticism and the people doubting me, but I just used it as motivation.”

Lockett finished with three tackles and also forced a first-quarter fumble.

“I felt like he was playing well enough to where it was like, `OK, let’s not break the rhythm,’ because he’s been ridiculed the whole season,” Walker said. “For him to be having a little bit of success, in terms of doing his job, I thought that was important for his confidence.”